Battering the French

In last week's post on TCEC Season 11, A Double-edged King's Indian, I selected a pair of decisive games that used the same opening :-

Stockfish had White in the odd-numbered games [...] In one pair of games -- the 29th and 30th -- Stockfish won both as White and as Black.

In only one other opening were both games decisive, the next two games in the match, the 31st and 32nd. Both engines won playing White. The opening was labelled 'French: Tarrasch, Closed', and the first eight moves were as follows:-

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Be7 4.Ngf3 Nf6 5.e5 Nfd7 6.Bd3 c5 7.c3 Nc6 8.O-O

The top portion of the following chart shows the position after 8.O-O.

The bottom portion of the chart shows the evaluations throughout both games by both engines. Stockfish playing White was finished after 36 moves, while Houdini playing White lasted until the 76th move. It's curious that the first move where the engines diverged -- 9.a4 for Stockfish and 9.Bc2 for Houdini -- had similar characteristics to the divergence in 'Double-edged King's Indian'. The Stockfish move was more aggressive than the Houdini move.

I could say more about the two games, but I'll stop here. This is the third time I've discussed TCEC game pairs where White won both games. The other two posts were Battering the Gruenfeld (March 2015), and TCEC Season 9 Superfinal Openings (December 2016).

The post for TCEC Season 9 showed two openings, a '1.d4 Slav System' and a '1.e4 French Defense'. In today's post we again see the French taking a heavy beating. Does the closed nature of the French coupled with the bad light-squared Bishop give too much of an advantage to White?

2018 U.S. Championship - Hall of Fame

Like the previous post, 2018 U.S. Championship, 'Strength of the Tournament', this video is from the Saint Louis Chess Club. I thought it fit well into the series on The Sociology of Chess (November 2016).

2018 U.S. Chess Championships: Alex Onischuk's Hall of Fame Induction (3:56) • 'Published on Apr 20, 2018'

The video's description added,

Grandmaster Alex Onischuk is inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame Class of 2018 during the opening ceremony of the 2018 U.S. Championships.

Introducing Onischuk, GM Maurice Ashley says,

All of us know Alex as one of the nicest guys in chess -- one of the humblest, [most] self-effacing despite his many successes. Alex is also an Iron Man, the oldest player in the field [for the current U.S. Championship].

Given how many world class players are somewhat quirky, it's great to see a 'nice guy' being recognized by one of the greatest honors in chess. For GM Onischuk's Hall of Fame page, see Alex Onischuk (worldchesshof.org). For more about all of the 2018 Hall of Fame inductees, see Nimzowitsch and Onischuk among Chess Hall of Fame inductees (chessbase.com; February 2018).

2018 U.S. Championship

With two rounds to go in the 2018 U.S. Chess Championship, Sam Shankland is 1/2-point ahead of Fabiano Caruana, who is 1/2-point ahead of Wesley So, who is 1/2-point ahead of the rest of the field. GMs Shankland and Caruana play against tournament tail-enders in their final games.

2018 U.S. Chess Championships: Strength of the Tournament (2:03) • 'Published on Apr 21, 2018'

From the Youtube channel for the Saint Louis Chess Club, where the event is currently being played:-

The players in the U.S. Chess Championship talk about the strength of the tournament this year.

For the final results, see:-

• US Chess Championships 2018 (theweekinchess.com; TWIC), or
• The home of championship chess in America (uschesschamps.com)

When has the U.S. Championship ever been so strong?

April Yahoos

The seventh straight month of chess in the mainstream press echoed two stories from the two previous months. Two months ago we had February Yahoos:-

Most powerful man in chess accused of 'secretly funding ISIS' (yahoo.com; nypost.com)

And last month we had March Yahoos:-

US chess grandmaster Caruana wins shot at world title match (yahoo.com; Associated Press)

This month's headlines are shown in the following composite of two snippets from the Yahoo news feed.

2018-04-02: Fabiano Caruana is poised to do what no American has done since Bobby Fischer. Here's the path he took to get there (yahoo.com). The Yahoo story was just a stub leading to the real story (with the same title) by Daaim Shabazz, Fabiano Caruana is poised to do... (sfgate.com)

Whenever a glimmer of chess talent is spotted in the United States, people often ask: "Is this the next Bobby Fischer?" In the early 2000s, a diminutive, bespectacled young boy -- who by age 9 was already battling seasoned competitors in top-level sections -- had his name added to the roster of Fischer aspirants. His name is Fabiano Caruana. Fabiano, now 25, has finally earned the right to challenge reigning chess champion Magnus Carlsen for the world championship crown this November in London. On March 27, he won the 2018 Candidates Tournament in thrilling fashion

The story is not your typical account of the formative years of a young chess player. (Although it does that, too.) Its focus is more that 'His evolution makes a good case study for homeschooling and other ways of learning that enable young people to break free from the static environment of formal education in order to pursue their passions.' It turns out that the Sfgate.com story is itself a reprint of Fabiano Caruana is poised to do... (theconversation.com). The copy of the article on that site ('Academic rigour, journalistic flair') has other stories about chess -- 'You might also like' -- that seem to be be worth exploring.

2018-04-09: Russian under US sanctions refuses to resign as world chess head (yahoo.com; The Telegraph)

The eccentric Russian president of the world chess federation will not step down despite calls from his colleagues, who say the US sanctions against him have cut the organisation off from financing. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a multimillionaire ally of Vladimir Putin who has visited dictators like Bashar al-Assad and claims to have once been abducted by aliens, told The Telegraph he would not resign and would in fact seek re-election in October's vote. He has been in office since 1995.

Both the Carlsen vs. Caruana match and the FIDE vs. Ilyumzhinov turmoil will continue as evolving stories over the next few months. Will April Yahoos bring May Wahoos? [What else rhymes with 'Yahoos'?]

Caruana's Rise to GM

I ended last week's post, Caruana's TWIC Debut, with:-

Two recurring events would prove to be important to Caruana's evolution as a chess player: the First Saturday tournaments in Budapest and the New York Masters.

Taking the New York Masters (newyorkmasters.com) first, after the initial TWIC report (59th New York Masters; 9 June 2003), there were 23 further TWIC reports mentioning Caruana in the event. They covered the 81st edition (11 November 2003) listing Caruana as an FM rated 2137, through the 122nd edition (19 October 2004), where the young star, now rated 2196, drew with GM Gata Kamsky, rated 2717. The official site mentions an even earlier event, the 36th edition (3 December 2002), where Caruana was an FM rated 2125.

As for the First Saturday events, after the February 2003 edition the next TWIC report was the June 2004 edition, where Caruana (rated 2140) finished the category 2 'IM' event with +4-4=2 for a 2304 performance. TWIC reported Caruana's participation in ten more of the Budapest events. Worth special mention is The Week in Chess 589 (20 February 2006):-

5) First Saturday February • The First Saturday tournaments for February 2006 start saw a GM and two IM groups along with lesser events starting February 4th. [...] Note that Fabiano Caruana is now Italian, not US as given last week.

The change of federation made him a European. Playing the February event in the GM section (apparently for the first time) as an FM rated 2409, he scored +5-5=2. The next three TWIC reports on Caruana in First Saturday events show him gaining his first, second, and third GM norms.

From Mr ‘First Saturday’ – Laszlo Nagy in Budapest (chessbase.com; February 2010):-

One day I saw [Laszlo Nagy] walking crestfallen in the corridors of the playing venue. He revealed to me what troubled him: GM Fabiano Caruana who has achieved most of his norms and titles playing at the First Saturday has related to Laszlo that a journalist in the USA teased him that First Saturday is a 'factory for norms', implying norms are easily or dishonestly achieved. I seemed to have managed to console him by pointing out that this journalist has picked on a particularly wrong target: Caruana had just made his impressive debut at Wijk aan Zee -- does that make this highly respected event also ‘a factory for norms’? Young Caruana has proved his talent time and again and paving his way through the First Saturday he reached many super tournaments up to the latest World Cup.

Fabiano Caruana at his first 1st Sat tournament in June 2004 [NB: what about the February 2003 event?] where he started as an 11-year-old FM rated 2140. At the time he was still playing under the USA flag, in the meantime, he had switched his allegiances and today plays for Italy. His current rating is 2675.

Fabiano and his family lived in Budapest for a number of years. Their main reason for settling temporarily in the Hungarian capital was his coach GM Alex Chernin who is a Budapest resident. But he combined his training sessions with playing, almost monthly, at the First Saturday, where by the following year, in May 2005 [TWIC 550], he achieved his first IM norm with 7.5/10 and a 2470 performance. His final GM norm came in the July 2007 First Saturday tournament.

From Fabiano Caruana Earns 3rd GM Norm (uschess.org; July 2007):-

Fabiano Caruana just earned his third GM norm in July's first Saturday tournament in Budapest. He also earned his first two norms in the March and April editions of the famous First Saturday tournaments, held in downtown Budapest. Fabiano has dual American-Italian citizenship and a FIDE rating of 2549. At 14 years old, he is set to beat Hikaru Nakamura's record as the youngest American GM ever!

The GM title helped Caruana gain invitations to the next level of tournaments. In January 2008, he would play in Wijk aan Zee (Corus 'C') for the first time.

A Double-edged King's Indian

In last week's post, Stockfish Wins TCEC Season 11, I noted,

The final score in the TCEC superfinal match was +20-2=78. A 59-41% margin of victory indicates that Stockfish is about 65 Elo points ahead of Houdini

In other words, Stockfish ('S' in the following discussion) beat Houdini ('H') convincingly. As in past TCEC superfinals, the engines took turns playing both sides of opening variations dictated in advance by the organizers. Stockfish had White in the odd-numbered games, and the following table shows how the two engines fared with each color, i.e. Houdini's two wins were with the White pieces:-

S-H: +13-0=37
H-S: +  2-7=41

In one pair of games -- the 29th and 30th -- Stockfish won both as White and as Black. The opening was labelled the 'King's Indian: Mar del Plata', and the first 14 moves were fed to the engines:-

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 O-O 6.Be2 e5 7.O-O Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1 Nd7 10.Be3 f5 11.f3 f4 12.Bf2 g5 13.Nd3 Nf6 14.c5 Ng6

The top diagram in the following chart shows the position where the engines started to think for themselves.

The bottom diagram shows the evaluations given to the resulting positions for the rest of the two games. On its first free move, Stockfish as White played 15.Rc1, while Houdini as White played 15.Kh1. The two moves make a sharp contrast. Stockfish's choice was offensive, while Houdini's was defensive.

For the rest of both games, Stockfish's evaluation of the position was invariably more accurate than Houdini's. Its forecast for the trend of the game came always a few moves ahead of Houdini's. If these had been human players, we could easily say that Stockfish had a better understanding of the position than Houdini.

As White, Stockfish won by breaking through on the Queenside, creating an advanced passed Pawn, and converting an endgame advantage. As Black, it won by a crushing attack on the Kingside. These are exactly the strategies that the position requires after move 14.

Of Chess Men and Fishing Rods

Are we running out of items for the long-running series on Top eBay Chess Items by Price (March 2010)? For this current edition I had the choice of a tournament program signed by the participants, a GM scoresheet signed by the players, a set of chess magazines, and a box. Since I've already featured examples of the other items, some several times, I went with the box.

Titled 'An Early 19th Century Chess Set Box', the item pictured below sold for GBP 3356.00 ('approximately US $4,706.12'). Starting at GBP 199.99, the auction lasted a week. After five days the price reached GBP 1800, when bidding stopped. Seconds before closing the price jumped to GBP 3200, and after a few more bids ended at the price shown. The bidding history showed a total of 22 bids from 7 bidders.

The description was so vague that you might wonder why the item attracted so many bids:-

This antique chess set box I think dates to the early 19th century but possibly a little later. I am not certain what the box is made of but looks like a lacquered papier mache or composite material but not certain. The box has a lovely design of a castle with the walls having chess piece figures and symbols with chess board designs on the ends as seen in the photos. The box is really well made and quite large measuring 8.25 x 6.25 x 4 inches. Inside there are cloth linings which I think are later additions.

The lid lifts off but not sure if originally attached. Underneath there is a retailers or makers label as shown with a number 22 but with possibly another number before them and signed beneath. The box is in pretty good condition. I think there have been a few repairs in the past and new material underneath, a few minor knocks and general wear and tear with age and use.

After a little searching, I discovered that I had featured another such 'box' a few years ago in Jaques Carton Pierre Casket (March 2013). After showing another composite photo with a more detailed description than for the current item, I added, 'It would be useful to know the dimensions of the casket'. Now we know. The certificate under the lid of the current item (shown above) looked something like:-

THE STAUNTON CHESS-MEN
REGISTERED No. 58,607, 5 & 6 VICTORIA, Cap. 100
BOX AND EBONY SET, WITH "TEXT-BOOK" AND CARTON PIERRE BOX } £ 1 15 0
(JAQUES) ENTERED No. 22
Signed ____ ??? Archery
IMP. RACKET BALLS
FISHING RODS AND TACKLE MADE TO ORDER AND REPAIR
7 St.Margarets Street, Canterbury
[drawing of two gentlemen fishing]
A large assortment of Cricket-balls, Bats, Wickets, etc.

Chess men, racket balls, fishing rods, and cricket -- what's the connection?